High drama unfolded ~ the target of 253
looked ordinary – Aussies lost 2 early wickets to Bhuvneshwar – Steve Smith was
milking runs; Glenn Maxwell took on the wristspinner, Kuldeep Yadav, out of the attack
with two sixes in one over. Chahal
struck again, drawing Maxwell out of his crease, beating him with dip, and
having him stumped beautifully by the effervescentl MS Dhoni off his back leg.
When the fifth bowler, Hardik Pandya, removed Smith with an accurate,
cross-seam bouncer, Australia were 138 for 5.

Kuldeep had bowled rather ordinarily as
his figures of 7-0-39-0 suggested – Kohli persisted with him, bringing him back
twice and .. .. he changed the match with a hat-trick. Yes, Kuldeep Yadav picked up a hat-trick in
the second One-Day International to sink Australia becoming third Indian to take a hat-trick in ODIs for
India after Chetan Sharma and Kapil Dev. He also became the second wrist
spinner to achieve the feat after Wanidu Hasaranga.

Almost 30 years ago, in Oct 1987, Chetan Sharma became the first bowler in
World Cup history to take a hat-trick. He
was the first Indian bowler to do so. The
venue was Nagpur, for the 24th match of the Reliance World Cup, where India
faced New Zealand. Bowling his nippy cutters and seamers, Sharma castled Ken
Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield with the last three balls of his sixth
over - the 42nd of New
Zealand's innings - to help set up a nine-wicket win for the defending
champions. All 3 batsmen were bowled.

Four years later in 1991, in Asia Cup at
Kolkata – Kapil Dev had Roshan Mahanama caught behind by Kiran More, trapped
Rumesh Rathnayake in front and had Sanath Jayasuriya caught by Sanjay Manjrekar
to take the next hattrick.

Statistically, the only bowler to have taken three career
hat-tricks is Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka, while three other bowlers (Wasim
Akram, Saqlain Mushtaqand Chaminda Vaas) have taken two hat-tricks.

The 1st ever hattrick in an ODI
was on Sept. 20, 1982 when JalaludDin had Rodney Marsh, Bruce Yardley and Geoff
Lawson.

All of us do well remember that brilliant
hattrick by Harbhajan Singh in what is otherwise known as VVS Laxman special
Test – 2nd Test at Kolkatta in Mar 2011, when India, following on
bounced back, thanks to that great innings by Laxman. Aussies on a winning spree lost the test and
the Series. Bhaji’s victims were Ricky
Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne.
Warne was caught by Saagopan Ramesh. At Karachi, in Jan 2006, Irfan Pathan removed
Salman Butt, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf -
have seen all the
hattricks by Indian bowlers live !! (on TV of course!)The first ever hattrick
in a Test was performed way back in Jan
1879 by Fred Spofforth for Australia against England at Melbourne.

Remember watching Petherick bowling to
Venkat Raghavan at Chepauk, he came with the reputation of having a taken a
hattrick on debut against Pakistan – but went on to play just 6 tests !

In Nov 1988, Courtney Walsh dismissed Tony Dodemaide to end
Australia's first innings in the first Test in Brisbane, then ripped out Mike
Veletta and Graeme Wood with his first two deliveries in the second innings to
have a hattrick spread over 2 innings. In
the next Test after Walsh's inaugural
split-innings hat-trick, the big Merv Hughes came up with an even more
complicated one, which was actually spread over three overs. At Perth, he dismissed Curtly Ambrose with the last ball of
his 36th over, then (after
another wicket had fallen at the other end) polished off the innings by
removing Patrick Patterson with the first ball of his next over, to finish with
5 for 130. Then, with the first ball of West Indies' second innings, Hughes
trapped Gordon Greenidge plumb in front, and went on to take 8 for 87.

Well bowled Yuz Chahal and his spinning partner
Kuldeep Yadav – by the way, is it a conscious plan to keep more acclaimed
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja out ??